Substituting Death for Medical Care is an Economic Fraud Practiced at the Expense of Canadian Taxpayers

Gordon (parliamentary press gallery)

By Gordon Friesen
President, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

It is no secret that Canadians, and especially young Canadians, are struggling to make ends meet. At the same time, Canada has some of the highest personal tax rates (and the smallest exemptions) in the world. The result is that many working people barely earn enough to survive. But they still pay a third of what they make to income tax, and (for the most part) pay 15% sales tax in spending whatever is left. Indeed, it is widely maintained, among young people, that there is no possible path towards a normal economic adult status, as that was defined even one generation ago.

The justification for this extreme taxation lies in the breadth of public services that government provides in Canada, as opposed to other jurisdictions such as the USA. Chief among those services is universal public healthcare, which accounts for 26% of all Federal (and 34% of all Provincial) government spending.

It is thus the Canadian healthcare regime which mainly explains both high taxation and acceptance of that taxation among the Canadian public. For Canadians are proud of their medical system. They are proud of the compassionate principle at its root. They are proud in the confidence of immediate care available in all circumstances. Among all government expenses, therefore, it is medical care for which taxpayers show the greatest tolerance, often affirming that they would be willing to pay even more... for higher standards of care.

What then may we say about an emerging public health policy in which death --in the form of euthanasia-- is to be routinely (and preferentially) substituted for the provision of any medical care at all?

What may we say about the suggestion of euthanasia for a worker who encounters a serious medical problem (as typically happens) towards the end of a long productive life, after that worker has paid thousands of hard-earned dollars every year for decades, in order to provide for precisely that event: for themselves, for their family and most generously also, for other less fortunate strangers whom they do not even know?

What can be said about the cynicism of proposing death as legitimate medical care, to that person, at that time?

Fraud. Theft. These are the words that come to mind.

Previous articles by Gordon Friesen (Articles Link).